Last Saturday, I went “mountain-climbing” in Hachioji, Tokyo. It is only an hour away from Shinjuku.

The mountain is called Mt. Takao (Takaosan in Japanese) and although it is in Tokyo, it is rich in green; therefore, it is popular as a leisure place.

I have lived in Tokyo for years but never had climbed the mountain.

It was ideal weather for an outing.

 

The station by the mountain.
It took about an hour to get there from Shinjuku.

 

 

The climbers were talking “which route shall we take?”
in front of a map of Mt. Takao.

 

 

This is the entrance. The building is a cable car station.

The fare is 470 yen (US$5). About 5minutes of ride took us to the destination.

 

This is the terminus.

 

 

There are several routes to go to the top of the mountain.

Since this was my first climbing the mountain, I took the cable car to the mid point.

From here to the top, it takes about an hour by walking.

 

But before started climbing, I got the popular sweet there.
It’s called “Tenguyaki” and has sweet black bean paste.
It’s 120 yen (US$1.30) per cake.

 

 

There are a lot of souvenir stores on the way.

Japanese bills!?

 

 

Huge trees seemed to be really old are everywhere.

 

Unexpectedly I found this octopus!
I have no idea what this statue is for.

 

In the mountain there is a Buddhist temple and as you can see,
there were a lot of visitors.

 

What a steep slope!

 

Some kind of memorial building (?). It looks western.

 

 

There were tengu bronze statues near the top and the climbers were taking pictures.

They are quite powerful.

 

This one is matchmaking shrine.

 

It made me feel like I was in Asakusa.

Can you see the small tengu bronze statues?

 

Finally I came to the top!

 

If the sky is clear, Mt. Fuji can be seen from there.

 

Because I took the cable car to the middle, it wasn’t so hard to get to the top.

But… going down was hard, actually, it was horrible.

I didn’t take the cable car. I went down on my foot.

 

It doesn’t look bad on the picture but there were so many bumps,
which torture the climbers’ legs.

 

A view from the mountain. You can see the center of Tokyo faintly in the far back.

 

It says “Don’t Feed Monkeys.” So there are monkeys in the mountain (lol).

 

After the long walking I came back the station.
I found a tengu mask that I didn’t see when I first arrived.
It’s like how could I miss such powerful thing (^_^)

 

After all, I was surprised that there are many greens in the place only an hour away from the central Tokyo.

It doesn’t cost to travel and good for exercise!

 

By the way, I haven’t searched the history of Mt. Takao and the relation to tengu, so I can’t explain now, but I will one of there days.

 

Ah, I shouldn’t forget these. I have got a souvenir for you.

I want to give the following item to ONE winner by lottery!

A beautiful big handkerchief.

 

 

The application due is June 20, Sunday. Please apply from the following URL.

 

http://www.japanstyle.info/?page_id=20

 

Please write “Mt. Takao Gift” in the subject box and write your name, address and impression on this blog “JAPAN Style”.

 

This is JAPAN Style!

 

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